The year since Casino Royale was released has been packed: Craig has
travelled around the world, made another two films (Flashbacks of a Fool
and Defiance) and attempted to adjust to his new life. The
promotional tour for Bond was a whirlwind of airports and hotels,
accompanied by his girlfriend, producer Satsuki Mitchell.
“I couldn’t get through it without her,” he says. “You’ve got to have a sense
of perspective and she gives me that. It’s a strain on a relationship
because we are never in one place and there’s never a lot of time. I have to
fight for that, and for my family.” Craig was married, briefly in his
twenties, to the actress Fiona Loudon, and they have a teenage daughter. Now
he seems settled with Mitchell, whom he met in 2005 when she was a producer
on The Jacket.
“It’s a struggle, but I couldn’t do it without having that closeness
to somebody,” he says of maintaining his stability during the pressures of
the past year. “Being on your own would be sad, sick and weird. I don’t
trust myself. I need that balance, it’s crucially important. And we’ve been
to some amazing places. I remember one night we were in this sky bar at the
top of a beautiful hotel having a drink looking out over Beijing and just
being blown away.
You have to have someone to share this stuff with. We got a private viewing of
the Sistine Chapel. A fantastic guy took us around and told us the history
of all the paintings. How cool is that? I said to Sats, ‘We have to remember
this.’”
It is, of course, very cool. But when you are James Bond, it comes with the
territory, such as the men’s magazine GQ recently naming him
the Best Dressed Man in Britain. “Oh yeah,” he groans. “I mean, that’s very
nice and everything, but now when I take the rubbish out wearing a pair of
flip-flops, shorts and a T-shirt, some paparazzo will snap me and that’ll
come back to haunt me.”
Craig is now in a world where, just as doors open to a life of wealth and
privilege, others close behind you – you are fêted all over the world, but a
pint down at your local is likely to turn into an unseemly scrum with phone
cameras flashing all around you. He laments the loss of the latter, but knew
that was part of the price he would have to pay. “You know, if I'm up for
it, fine. I have to keep hold of my sense of humour, because you can lose it
very quickly and you start retreating into yourself; then you can’t go
anywhere unless you are with armed guards, and the whole thing becomes
ridiculous. So you have to smile about these things.
“But I tell you, trying to take pictures of me when I’m having a piss is not
welcome and never will be. And yes, that’s happened.”
Born in Chester, 39 years ago, Craig grew up in Liverpool. He attended the
National Youth Theatre at 16 and then the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama in London. In 1996 he starred in the highly acclaimed BBC drama Our
Friends in the North, a corruption and crime saga regarded as one of the
best television dramas of recent times. That led to feature films, and along
with Sylvia (playing poet Ted Hughes) and The Jacket, Craig
has been sought out by directors such as Steven Spielberg (Munich),
Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition) and Roger Michell (The Mother, Enduring
Love). Craig himself continues to look for more edgy roles to play
alongside the big-budget extravaganzas.
Earlier this year, he signed up to play a fading Hollywood star looking back
on his youth in England in Flashbacks of a Fool, directed by his
friend, Baillie Walsh. The film has a relatively small budget, but with
Craig on board it was green lit and in production. “I think we probably
could have done it [pre-Bond], but it would have been harder, and a struggle
in a different way. It’s not going to be a huge money-spinner because it’s
not that kind of movie.
“But to be able to make films like this is important to me. I have to be
all these other things now and acting starts dropping down the list, which
is bizarre. You go, ‘Hang on a minute, I just want to be an actor, I want to
just turn up and do the gig.’”
In musical terms, The Golden Compass is stadium rock, set in a
brilliantly conceived landscape with parallel worlds where people’s souls
manifest themselves as animals known as Daemons. Craig’s Asriel is the uncle
of Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), the 12-year-old heroine of the story. “It
clings on to the story of Creation, but it’s also about growing up, about
being a human being and figuring out who you are, and becoming better
because of that,” he says.
Pullman’s novels are controversial, too, because they feature a strong
theological element that casts the Church as an oppressive organisation out
to stifle individuality. Some Christian groups have condemned them, and it’s
not clear yet how much of this will feature in screenwriter and director
Chris Weitz’s epic.
Craig met Pullman on set and they have stayed in touch. “He feels passionately
about the books, obviously, but also passionately about life. I’m a huge
admirer of his, and I genuinely like him very much. My take is that there is
a fundamental right to discuss all sorts of things, particularly at the
moment with the way the world is. All we’re saying is faith always needs to
be questioned.”
Now Craig is back into Bond mode, involved in every stage of Bond 22. Marc
Forster will direct, and writer Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar
Baby) is finalising the script. Forster, who directed Monster’s Ball
and Finding Neverland, isn’t an obvious choice. He’s just shot The
Kite Runner and isn’t known for action and adventure.
“If we are going to do this, we have to create something that is going to
last, that we are going to look at and say, ‘They were different,’”
argues Craig. “It’s a risk, but the last one was a risk just because it was
me getting involved, and we seem to have ridden that one out. So now we have
to go to the next stage. I want to make sure the next two, three, four,
whatever films I manage to do before they chuck me out, or before it goes
tits up, sit nicely within this era.”
Craig’s enthusiasm is infectious. Bond has changed his life, in both good and
bad ways, for ever. He has to deal with that, but there’s part of him that’s
determined to cling on to where he comes from, and not let it all go to his
head. “I mustn’t get complacent,” he says, “because if I start relaxing
about all of this, then I’m going to turn into a dick. I don’t want to do
that if I can possibly avoid it.”
The Golden Compass is released on December 5
